Mark Hansen

Professor Mark Hansen is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Literature at Duke University, United States. He is a world-renowned scholar whose work has forged new ways of thinking about the role played by technology in human agency and social life. His work has influenced disciplines from literary studies, film and media, and philosophy, to science studies and cognitive neuroscience. His recent work has paid attention to the key role played by visual art and literature in brokering cultural adaptation to technology, from the industrial revolution to the digital revolution. Among his many books, his Embodying Technesis: Technology Beyond Writing (Michigan, 2000) set the agenda for his research by addressing what is left out when literary and cultural theorists turn their attention to technology. His books New Philosophy for New Media (MIT, 2006) and Bodies in Code (Routledge 2007) focused on the contemporary digital media revolution through the work of practicing new media artists, architects, and literary authors. Mark will lead the Duke University collaboration in the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, convening the research cluster on Forms-of-Life.